CTUL is hiring!WORKERS RIGHTS DEFENDERS ORGANIZER AND TEAM LEAD

Program Description; Workplace Rights Defenders Program is a relatively new program that was born after winning the minimum wage increase in the state of Minnesota. With the new wage coming at a time when the state’s Department of Labor and Industry has only four investigators, it was clear that the need for enforcement would not be met by the state. CTUL created a committee of workers to begin to learn about their rights, to be the enforcers of these rights on their job and prepare themselves to advocate for expanded rights through public policy and corporate campaigns.

CTUL 4th Annual Workers Gala, August 15, 2015!

As an organization of workers and for workers, we depend on the support of allies like you to be able to continue to fight for fair treatment of low-wage workers.

We hope that you will join the low-wage worker movement through your $30 donation for tickets and/or sponsorship of the CTUL Gala and join us for dinner, music, dancing and a silent auction from 7:00 to 11:00 on the evening of Saturday August 15, 2015 at the United Labor Centre, 312 Central Ave in Minneapolis.

Retail janitors from over 50 stores in the Twin Cities metro area walked out on strike on 6.9.15 demanding fair wages and an end to wage theft. Just a day before the strike, CTUL published a new report about the prevalence of wage theft in the retail janitorial industry, including the class action lawsuit filed three weeks ago by employees of Capital who clean Macy’s and Herberger’s stores (“Held Up Without a Gun – Wage Theft in Minnesota’s Janitorial Industry“).

Following the picket line, striking janitors joined workers, faith leaders, and community leaders from around the state for an action at Best Buy Corporate HQ, calling on the company to stop blocking local and state policies that would help working families. Click here for a report of the action.

“I am going on strike because my employer, Capital Building Services Group, is cheating us,” Duniyo Hussein, who cleans the Macy’s at the Mall of America for CBSG, said. “$8.00 an hour is not fair for the work we do. We work hard. In the United States, no one should make such a low wage. I am going on strike so we can win fair wages and more rights at our job.”

(NEW: Press coverage – see below)

Workers at eight cleaning companies announced a 6/9 strike deadline, calling for companies to open dialogue to work together to end ongoing labor abuses. A strike could potentially impact the cleaning of 15 retail chains across the metro area including Macy’s, Target, Kohl’s, and Sears.

Minimum wage violations: “employees’ wages fall well short of minimum wage – in some cases as little as $4 or $5 an hour.”

Overtime violations: “Employees generally are not paid overtime when they work over forty hours in a workweek.”

Underreporting of hours worked: “Defendant systematically underreports Plaintiff’s hours worked. It is not uncommon for entire shifts to disappear.”

Janitors who work for seven other cleaning companies stood with the Capital workers to announce a June 9th strike deadline. Stay tuned for more details about the lawsuit and the strike deadline announcement…

Get on the Bus!

McDonalds Shareholder meeting Action!

Chicago – May 19-21.

On April 15th, over 1,500 striking fast food workers, retail janitors, airport workers, university workers, students and community allies took to the streets in the Twin Cities demanding $15 an hour and union rights.

And now they are bringing the fight to the McDonald’s doorstep!

Join thousands of fast food workers from across the country in bringing the fight to McDonalds’ doorstep at their annual shareholder meeting.

For more information, contact

Meals and lodging will be provided!

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In the morning, Lucila stood with workers who complain of unpaid wages in the sub-contracted cleaning of Walgreens and other stores. Later that evening she received top honors from the Saint Paul Foundation for her anti-racism work, organizing with low-wage workers of color for fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace.

“Low-wage workers of color who are members of CTUL, like myself, are stepping up. We refuse to follow the vicious cycle of changing from job to job, stuck in a system of economic, social and racial inequity. Instead, we are working to change the jobs where we are, proactively working to build healthy communities for everyone. Target Corporation has demonstrated interest in following the leadership of low-wage workers of color. We are calling on Best Buy and other Minnesotan corporations to step up as well so that together we can establish economic, social and racial equity for all Minnesotans.”

This is our moment…

“This is our moment — we are going to change service jobs from ones that drag our economy down into ones that lift up workers, families and communities,” said Carmela Palacios, Burger King employee and member of CTUL, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha/Center of Workers United in Struggle. “Fast-food workers are joining together and standing up for what’s right, and standing with so many people working in a variety of industries, we are stronger than ever. I know we will win.” “Fast food workers shut down Minneapolis intersection,” Barb Kucera, WorkDay Minnesota, April 15, 2015

We work for corporations that generate tremendous profits, but don’t pay employees enough to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent, and transportation. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Stand with workers on April 15 for $15 and Union Rights!

On April 15th tens of thousands of low-wage workers across the country will join striking fast food workers in the biggest mobilization to date in the Fight for $15. In the Twin Cities, striking fast fast food will be joined by university workers,retail workers, airport employees, home healthcare workers and more, all standing up to their employers demand $15/hour and union rights. Workers are also calling for municipal policies in Minneapolis for $15 minimum wage, paid sick days, fair scheduling and an end to wage theft.

Through its leadership in the Minnesota Business Partnership, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, and Minnesota Retailers Association, Best Buy is lobbying for policies that benefit big corporations and the wealthiest Minnesotans, while keeping working families impoverished. Join CTUL and ISAIAH on Tuesday, April 14 to tell Best Buy that we demand an end to its corporate greed. Location TBA.

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In building towards April 15th, CTUL members and allies have been leading numerous actions.

April 2 McDonald’s Workers Respond to “Raise”

On April 1st, only one day after fast food workers announced a strike for April 15, McDonald’s announced that they were raising wages for workers. Turns out the “raise” is incredibly small, and only impacts around 10% of McDonald’s workers. CTUL members who work at McDonald’s led a press conference to respond.

March 31 Fast Food Strike Announcement

“April 15 we’re going on strike, all together, united for a better future,” Blanca Gonzalez, CTUL member, McDonald’s worker. Fast food workers, airport workers, and home healthcare workers united to announce the April 15 fast food strike, and the call for $15 and union rights.

March 18 Fast Food Worker Action

CTUL members who work in fast food and allies led an action as part of a national day of action with fast food workers, protesting the overwhelming number of burns in the workplace and the lack of proper first aid for burns.

Workers report that management at the Uptown McDonald’s has promised raises for many months but has not followed through, and that many workers have had to work shifts alone. CTUL members led a delegation to speak with the manager on March 17, backed by a crew of allies including around a dozen high school students from Stillwater and Northfield, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, MN Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC), and 15 Now Minnesota

Dozens of CTUL members and allies led delegations to the Roseville Best Buy and Kohl’s stores, calling on the companies to play a leadership role in strengthening basic worker protections for working Minnesotan families.

Long-time CTUL ally U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has invited Veronica Mendez, as a representative of CTUL and low-wage workers in Minnesota, to President Barack Obama’s sixth State of the Union. Click here for more

“Yesterday the radio was filled with speeches from the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today I will stand beside the first African-American to be elected to the House of Representatives from Minnesota listening to a speech from the first African-American President of the United States. While I am honored, I go with a conflicted heart…” – Veronica Mendez Moore (click here to read the entire statement)

For over four years, retail janitors have struggled to change a backwards industry rampant with poverty wages, wage theft, dangerous working conditions, lack of benefits, etc. Workers have organized with CTUL, leading marches, strikes and more. Now Target Corporation has created a Responsible Contractor Policy in the contracted cleaning of its stores; and just last week, two days before the Black Friday Strike for Our Lives, one of the largest retail janitorial companies in the Twin Cities, Kellermeyer Bergenson’s Services (KBS), signed an agreement with SEIU that respects the rights of workers to organize, preventing strikes from taking place at stores cleaned directly by the company.

Despite the fact that Target Corporation has taken a leadership role in the industry by creating the Responsible Contractor Policy, one of the companies that currently cleans Target stores – Prestige Maintenance USA – has not taken the policy seriously. Many workers are still forced to work seven days a week, and the company has not engaged in sincere dialogue to address issues of poverty wages and poor working conditions. Because of wages and working conditions, janitors who work for contracted companies cleaning Target stores participated in the Black Friday strike.

Following the KBS agreement and the Black Friday strike, Target Corporation put out a public statement about the contracted cleaning of its stores: “We are very pleased by the progress that some vendors have made and continue to strongly encourage other vendors that haven’t made similar progress to come to the table with SEIU and CTUL and work together in good faith.” In the statement, Target emphasized that “to the extent our vendors fail to do so we will hold them accountable.”

The times, they are a-changing…workers are calling for change, the broader community is calling for change, Target Corporation is calling for change, KBS is calling for change…it’s time for Prestige and other retail janitorial companies to catch up to the times! Click here for more detailed information.

Thousands of fast food workers in over 190 cities around the country walked out on strike on December 4th, demanding $15 and union rights. Here in the Twin Cities, over 400 workers and community allies braved the cold for two actions at 6am and noon. Click here for a full report.

CTUL member Guillermo Lindsay in CBS MoneyWatch: “I’d rather live than survive. What about you?” Click the link below for the entire article, and click here for local coverage.

Retail janitors who work for contracted companies cleaning large stores like Home Depot, Sears, Kohl’s and others walked out on strike today at over 50 stores in the Twin Cities, demanding fair wages and the right to organize. Hundreds of allies stood with workers in the freezing cold for three hours. Click here for more pictures from the picket line.

Recently, Target Corporation committed to play a leadership role by implementing the industry’s first Responsible Contractor Policy. Yet, the companies that clean Target stores are not only ignoring workers’ voices, they are also ignoring Target by not respecting the new Responsible Contractor Policy. Workers still report having to work seven days a week, ongoing sub-poverty wages that take a toll on workers’ health, and no clear path to ensure workers’ voices. Since these and other large cleaning companies continue to pay poverty wages and refuse to take workers seriously, workers at four cleaning companies walked out on strike: Prestige Maintenance USA, Carlson Building Maintenace, Kimco Services and Diversified Maintenance Systems.

Black Friday Week of Action

“Fighting to Live, Not Just Survive!”

So this Thanksgiving, we owe Minnesota’s low-wage workers a debt of gratitude for making our favorite holiday celebrations possible. We should also thank them for reminding us that our economy needs to change and that it can change, if people speak up and start demanding better. We should support the low-wage workers who are standing up for all of us

Background: The Minnesota Department of Health recently published a report on poverty and health in the state, highlighting the fact that Minnesotans who live in areas with the highest median household income live an average of 8 years longer than those who live in areas with the lowest median household incomes. According to the report: “The growing economic inequities and the persistence of health disparities in our great state are a matter of life and death for many.”

This holiday season, low-wage workers from across the state of Minnesota are fighting to take back the years that companies are stealing off working families’ lives. Stand with retail janitors and fast food workers with CTUL, Walmart workers with OUR Walmart, airport workers with 15 Now, home health care workers with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, the fight for paid sick days with Take Action Minnesota, and other low-wage workers from across the state of Minnesota who are joining together through Minnesotans for a Fair Economy (MFE) for a Black Friday Week of Action, November 28 – December 5, 2014:

Black Friday Week of Action:

Friday, November 28, 10am. “March for Our Lives”. Take Action Minnesota together with striking Walmart workers from OUR Walmart are leading a mass march demanding paid sick days. Meet at University Ave. & N. Griggs St., St. Paul.

Saturday, November 29, 7pm.“Food Chains”, a new film about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). At the end of the film there will be a panel discussion including a worker from the CIW and CTUL.

Friday, December 5, 12pm. Airport workers’15 Now Rally for $15/hour and a Union. Support MSP International Airport Workers who are organizing with SEIU Local 26, 15 NOW and IAM as they join the national fight for $15 and their right to a union. Meet at the Terminal 1 Ticketing Drop off Area at 12:00 PM

Retail Janitors Set Black Friday Strike Deadline

Over 100 workers and community allies braved the cold to join the announcement of a strike deadline with retail janitors outside of the Home Depot in Richfield. Last June, after a series of meetings with CTUL and workers, Target Corporation created a Responsible Contractor Policy that ensures that companies contracted to clean Target stores will open dialogue with workers to improve working standards in the industry. Since the announcement, the two companies that clean Target stores and a third company that cleans other stores in the Twin Cities have all opened dialogue, yet they have not seemed to take workers’ concerns seriously. Other cleaning companies have refused to talk at all.

We are fighting to live, not just survive!

“We will no longer sit back quietly as cleaning companies steal years off of our lives and the lives of our families by paying poverty wages. On Black Friday, we will ‘Strike for Our Lives’ against all of the cleaning companies that refuse to respect our right to organize without fear of retaliation,” — Maricela Flores, retail janitor and CTUL member.

ABOUT CTUL

CTUL is a low-wage worker-led organization that is fighting for fair wages, fair working conditions, and a voice in the workplace for all workers in the Twin Cities metro area. Currently CTUL is leading three campaigns:

Campaign for Justice in Retail Cleaning: Over the past 10-15 years, wages and working conditions in retail cleaning have spiraled out of control, with constantly lowering wages and increasing workloads. After four years of organizing, including three strikes against cleaning companies in 2013, workers have won significant changes in the industry. Most recently, after a year of dialogue between Target Corporation, CTUL and retail janitors, Target is taking a leadership role in the industry by adopting new language in an unprecedented Responsible Contractor Policy. Click here for more information on the campaign.

Fast Food Campaign: Fast food workers in the Twin Cities are organizing with CTUL as part of the national Fight for $15 and the right to a union. Click here for more information on the campaign, including a report on workers’ first strike in the Twin Cities on September 4, 2014.

Defensores de Derechos / Workplace Rights Defenders: Low-wage workers participate in a series of four in-depth workshops on workplace rights and how to document violations of workplace rights. After participating in four workshops workers form the Defensores Committee, which will facilitate workshops with other workers and will gather information to publish a report in September 2015 on low-wage work in the Twin Cities. Come back soon for more information on Defensores.

What an incredible day! Fast food workers across the country are rising, demanding fair wages and working conditions. Click here for a full report on the fast food strike here in the Twin Cities organized by CTUL, including photos, press coverage, videos and more…

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After four years of organizing including leading three strikes against cleaning companies in 2013, and a year of dialogue between Target Corporation, CTUL and retail janitors, Target is taking a leadership role in the industry by adopting new language in an unprecedented Responsible Contractor Policy that will be implemented for new cleaning contracts at their stores. The policy is the first of its kind nationally in the industry. CTUL is now calling on every other major retail stores to follow Target’s leadership by adopting the same Responsible Contractor Policy, including:

Protecting and ensuring workers’ rights to collectively bargain with their employers;

Ensuring that workers have the right to form safety committees in the workplace made up of at least 50% workers who are designated by their co-workers; and

Ensuring that workers are not forced to work seven days a week.

This victory paves the way for workers to gain fair wages, benefits, and a voice in the workplace, and has implications that move well beyond the estimated 1,000 retail janitors in the Twin Cities, opening the door to ensure that low-wage workers of color have a place at the table in deciding the future of work. Fundamentally this is part of CTUL’s vision of empowering low-wage workers to play a leadership role in reorganizing the economy to ensure that it works for everyone, not just the 1%.

Statements of support for workers with this victory from U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, National Guestworker Alliance, Janice Fine, and many more.

Press Highlights

“The janitors who clean Twin Cities Target stores announced victory today, after the retailer agreed to a new policy that will give the workers better conditions, including the right to collectively bargain, and ensure workers are not forced to work seven days a week.”

And in case you missed the reports of previous actions…

Video from Labor Education Services:

What a day! Hundreds of workers and community allies made it through the freezing cold for four and a half hours on a picket line with striking retail janitors this morning. Click here for pictures from the picket.